It was very poorly attended (and organized) tournament in Hilton, NY. It was a san da division at a kyokushin tournament. The San Da director was "Sifu" Brian Bateman (A total tool and generally insane man). Turn out was so low, it turned out to be simply one fight per division. This was possibly one of the most horrible events I have been to. But, some good experience was earned for the fighters. The fighters were cool and the kyokushin folks seemed cool, but Bateman (the Rochester Shaolin Sifu) was a different story.

Originally Posted by Lazy SamboPimp, who can only be bothered to pimp his pimp-tastic team :p

As you know this event was probably one of the poorest organized events I have attended in my life. The guys did not fight until 4pm or so. We waited 6 hours for a division with only 3 matches.

Here is a run down...

When we showed up, we were told that Sifu Brian Bateman was running the san da event. After meeting Bateman, I knew this was going to be a strange day. He clearly is a man with some serious issues and turned out to be completely disorganized and unaware of how to run an event. He was obviously a fearful man, who could not engage discussion rationally, and always seemed to be nervous and twitching around. This poor organization was in-part due to an extreme lack of communication between Bateman and the kyokushin group who was hosting his san da event.

First, only three guest fighters turned up (besides Bateman's 10 students) for the san da division. Part of the problem was surely lack of promotion and the fact that they were billing the event as "extreme fighting", and not san da. From the beginning this division seemed like the bastard step child of the event. Nobody really cared about it. On top of that, it quickly became clear that Bateman had little control over the event, no knowledge of how to run an event, and little organizational skill as well.

The fighters were never weighed in or checked by a EMT. Bateman was clearly more interested in getting his fighters fights than making appropriate matches. Though it literally took hours for him to tell us the matches - even though there were only 3 fighters not from his own school. Probably the only appropriate match was Reilly's. He fought one of Bateman's students who weighed in at 160lbs (Reilly is 155lbs). The two other fights that happened had serious problems.

All through the day I was consistently asking who was fighting who and when. Bateman could never give a straight answer and was always trying to figure out the match-ups. He always seemed frantic and nervous when approached and would never disclose the backgrounds of his fighters or their actual weights. He would just mutter something like "I am trying my best" or "I am trying to figure it out" or "I want as many of my guys to fight as possible". When pressed, he claimed all his fighters had only one prior fight. But, when we asked Reilly's opponent later, he stated that he had 3 prior fights.

Finally, Bateman calls a meeting with san da coaches and fighters...and a kyokushin representative. He explains the rules and that he matched up three of his fighters against the three guest fighters based on "body type" and "experience". The experience levels where certainly dubious on his end. Bateman was clearly more interested in getting his fighters fights (and wins), rather than making good and fair matches.

Of the three guest fighters who came to the event (from Fusion Gym), Reilly and one other were in the 155lb range. My student Keith was in the 170lb range. But, since no weigh-ins were done, all was based on stated weights. Bateman matched up Reilly with his stated 160lb guy; Keith with his 170lb guy; and Bateman then put his 185lb guy against the other 160lb fighter from Fusion gym (who had no prior fights and was only training for 5 months prior).

I suggested that we take the three 155-160lb guys and make a three man division out of it. That way these guys would get at least 2 fights each. But Bateman got irritated and said he brought 10 guys with him and they deserved fights if they could be matched. Even if the match was an unfair one I guess. I voiced my opinion that the way he was matching was not correct, but the guy from Fusion agreed to fight bateman's 185lb guy. In the fight, Bateman's guy, who was also an instructor at his school it seems, smashed Fusion's fighter to pieces and won his "fight".

I then further commented on the poor nature of the event and how it was being run. How we drove 8 hours for this horrible event. That nobody knew what was going on, that there was horrible matching, that there was no communication with the coaches, weigh-ins or medical checks, communication between tournament staff, etc. Basically we had gotten the run around from the moment we showed up.

I continued to urge Bateman to put the three san da fights on early in the day since it would be a sum total of 15 minutes. I kept reminding him that we drove 8 hours to come to this event and that since it was not a big turn out, it would be nice to not wait until the end of the day to fight...since we had a long drive home.

During the day we had been told we would be fighting at this time or that time, or after this or that event (by Bateman and the kyokushin people), but they never lived up to their promises. By the time we did fight, it was because we were told that one ring was now ours to use, but Bateman was not getting things started. He had exactly ZERO initiative. He said we had to wait for the other divisions to finish first - even though the kyokushin people said we could go. Having had enough, I took control, approached the kyokushin director, and got us started. The kyokusin director actually thought I was running the san da event! See what a bit of initiative can do. Bateman had no initiative and was a basket case the whole day.

Before the actual fights, but after all this discussion and BS Bateman simply showed me the matches on a piece of paper (which were scribbled names on some scrap paper I could not read) and walked away from me - Refusing to deal with any of the concerns I was mentioning.

I muttered to my fighters under my breath "what an a-hole" he was and how crappy this event was, that we would not come back again. He must have heard me as Bateman returned and flew off the handle. Getting in my face, yelling at me not to disrespect him. He was twitching and out of control like a tweaker in need of a fix. Seriously...he was really losing it. I really thought we were going to come to blows and I was going to have to fight this guy. That did not worry me much, but I really did not want to go there...at least not before our guys had their fights. All the fighters from each camp gathered around and things were very tense. I managed to calm him down. I felt like I was back at my old job in the psych unit...LOL.

Then, once calm, he literally asks me to act as a judge! Can you believe it??!! He did not have enough judges. In fact, he refereed all three fights, which were all with his own students. One one of his students also acted as a judge. Wanting to get this nightmare of a day over with, I agreed to judge the fight that did not have one of my students fighting. The coach from Fusion agreed to judge the fights that his student was not in. The third judge was one of the kyokushin judges (from the IKA I think)

Just to give you an idea, this who ordeal was about over a span of 6 hours...for three fights!

So, finally the fights happen.

The first fight was the mismatch between the Fusion MMA school (160lb newbie student) and Bateman's fighter (185 lb instructor with at least one prior fight). Well, it went as one might expect. Bateman's guy won. The fight was a joke.

The second fight was Reilly (155lbs) vs Bateman's guy (160lbs). Experience level was fairly even as far as I could tell. Reilly have never fought san da, but has 2 amateur mma and one combat sambo bout under his belt. The other guy claimed he had 3 prior fights (even though Bateman told me he only had one). Reilly destroyed him. Threw him like a rag doll, used good striking. (I will post a vid soon). Reilly won decicively.

The third fight was my student Keith vs another student of Bateman's. Keith has had one combat sambo fight prior. Bateman claims his guy had one prior san da fight. This fight was a joke. The first round was back and fourth. Mostly stand up...fairly even. BUT, Bateman allowed his guy to wear that rediculous foam dipped century style head gear. In round two, Keith came out again more aggressive. Striking into clinches and throw attempts. However, every throw attempt by Keith was thwarted by the guys headgear coming off. Throws were impossible. It was like the guy's head was made of vasoline. Keith fought very well, landed good strikes. Got thrown clearly once. But, he ended up losing due to the head gear.

I was complaining about the headgear the whole fight, but Bateman ignored me. After the fight, the kyokushin judge came up to me and said Bateman ignored him too and refused to change the headgear. That he thought Keith should have won that fight. He commented on how Keith lost three good throws due to the crappy headgear. Watching the fight again last night, I really believe Keith could have won that fight. But, scoring that fight would be like letting a MLB player play with a wiffle ball bat. It was just silly. So, I am going to contact the tournament director and request a no-contest from the IKF. The fight was crap. Funny thing is that after the fight, Keith's opponent said to keith that his rib might be busted...or at least really bruised up from Keiths kicks

I also want to add that all the fighter's were very cool, down to earth and game. My only issues were with Bateman. I have no idea how they could train under that guy?! I don't know if I will ever undertand the traditional kung fu crowd.

The day sucked. I am very happy for Reilly and Keith, but I would NEVER attend this event again as long as Bateman is running it.